1. Field
Example embodiments relate to an object based audio contents generating/playing apparatus, and more particularly, to an object based audio contents generating/playing apparatus that may generate/play object based audio contents regardless of a user environment of the object based audio contents.
2. Description of the Related Art
MPEG-4 is an audio/video encoding standard proposed by a moving picture expert group (MPEG), the affiliated organization of an international organization for standardization/international electrotechnical commission (ISO/IEC), in 1998. MPEG-4 is developed from a standard system of MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 and additionally includes a virtual reality markup language (VRML) and contents relating to an object-oriented composite file, and the like. MPEG-4 aims at increasing an encoding rate, developing an integrated method of encoding an audio, a video, and a voice, enabling interactive audio/video to be played, and developing an error restoring technique.
MPEG-4 has a main feature of playing an object based audio/video. That is, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 is limited to a general structure, a multi-transmission, and synchronization, whereas MPEG-4 additionally includes a scene description, interactivity, contents description, and a possibility of programming. MPEG-4 classifies a target for encoding for each object, sets an encoding method according to an attribution of each object, describes a desired scene, and transmits the described scene in an audio binary format for scenes (AudioBIFS). Also, audiences may control information such as size of each object, a location of each object, and the like, through a terminal, when listening to the audio.
As a representative object based audio contents playing method, there is wave field synthesis (WFS) scheme. The WFS scheme generates a wavefront identical to a first wavefront in a space classified as a loudspeaker array by synthesizing sounds played through a plurality of loudspeakers from the first wavefront generated from a first sound source.
A standardization project relating to the WFS scheme, namely, a creating assessing and rendering in real time of high quality audio-visual environments in MPEG-4 context (CARROUSO), has conducted research to transmit a sound source in a form of an object through MPEG-4 having a feature of object-oriented and commutativity, and to play using the WFS scheme.